Mitchell Starc reclaims No. 1 spot in ICC Test bowling rankings after Cape Town nine-wicket haul
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has moved back to the top of the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings, overtaking South Africa’s Marco Jansen after taking nine wickets in the third Test in Cape Town and reaching a new career-best rating.
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has reclaimed his place as the world’s No. 1 Test bowler, overtaking South Africa left-armer Marco Jansen in the latest ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings published on Wednesday.
Starc returns to the top on the back of a nine-wicket match haul in the third and final Test of the ICC World Test Championship series against South Africa in Cape Town, gaining one place to jump ahead of Jansen and regain the premier spot for Test bowlers, the ICC said.
The 36-year-old left-armer took six wickets for 72 in South Africa’s first innings and three for 65 in the second, for match figures of nine wickets, in a Test South Africa won by 176 runs to take the series 2-1. Jansen, by contrast, managed only three wickets in Cape Town, six fewer than Starc, and that swing was enough to reverse the order at the top.
It is the second time in a matter of months that the summit has changed hands between the two. Starc first reached No. 1 in August, ending the reign of India pacer Jasprit Bumrah, only for Jansen to take the mantle following his six wickets in the second Test for the Proteas in Gqeberha. Jansen had claimed the top position only last week, before being displaced again in Cape Town.
Starc’s return to the top also comes with a new career-best rating of 881, according to reports of the latest update, underlining how tight the race has become at the summit. He was also the leading wicket-taker in the series as a whole, picking up 15 wickets in three Tests, even though Australia lost the final Test and the series.
South Africa still had plenty to celebrate in the rankings. Although Jansen lost the top spot among Test bowlers, he increased his lead at the top of the Test all-rounders’ list by reaching a new career-high rating following his half-century in the third Test. Spinner Simon Harmer, named Player of the Match in Cape Town after claiming his maiden 10-wicket match haul, also climbed sharply in the rankings.
The wider update brought gains elsewhere too. India captain Shreyas Iyer moved up two places to seventh in the latest T20I batting rankings, while players from Pakistan and India made gains in the white-ball rankings, according to the ICC’s summary of the weekly update.
For Starc, the ranking is a reward for longevity as much as for one match. A left-arm quick who has led Australia’s attack across formats for more than a decade, he has repeatedly reinvented himself — through injuries, workload management and changing roles — and his Cape Town performance showed the full range of his craft, from the new-ball burst that produced six for 72 to the reverse-swing threat in the second innings.
For Jansen, the consolation is substantial: he remains the world’s leading Test all-rounder, and at a much younger age he has already shown he can reach the top of both lists. The rivalry at the summit looks far from settled, and the next series for either man could easily flip the order again.
The rankings will next be updated after the coming round of Test cricket, and both bowlers will know that the margin at the top is now small enough that a single strong match — or a single quiet one — can decide who holds the crown.
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